This is my first post. I got a question about a problem with my tableau strategy.

I have a database about research projects in a university. This database is in excel, and has 7 sheets. Every sheet has different information about the research projects.

Each research project has a unique consecutive identifier (1,2, 3.....so on).

In the first sheet I have the research project title, its start and ending dates, and the faculty of the project. In the second sheet, I have the external funding for the project, in which I include the name of the institution, its nationality, and how much money it invested in the project.

When I combine both sheets in Tableau, I have no problem if I try to find how much money an Institution has invested in our research projects.

For example, Institution A invested USD 100k in project 1 and USD 200 k in project 2. When I use Tableau, I can add them up, and find a total of USD 300 k.

But, the problem begins when I try to add the other sheets. When I do this in Tableau, then it multiplies the values of the investments for those external institutions. Then I cannot use graphs or other strategies to conduct my analyses.

In this case, the sheet 3 has the information about the research groups that are leading the project. Then, Tableau multiplies the investments as many groups are participating in the project.

For example. the Institution A makes the same investments than before; but now, in the project 1 there are two research gropus. Then, if I add them up to find the total investments of Institution A, then Tableau does not let me to USD 300k, but to USD 400k.